The Adams-Van Lew residence in Richmond's Church Hill neighborhood was built for John Adams, a Richmond physician. It was sold to John Van Lew in 1836 and was passed on to Van Lew's daughter, an outspoken abolitionist and Union spy, Elizabeth Van Lew. The residence was demolished in 1911. Van Lew altered the Federal design of the house's exterior, adding a dwarf Doric portico on the street facade and a two-story piazza on the garden facade. The garden, located at the rear of the house, had an unobstructed viewshed of the James River.